What Makes Participation Meaningful? Using Photo-Elicitation to Interview Children with Disabilities

AIMS: The purpose of this study was to describe meaningful participation in everyday life from the perspectives of children with disabilities. METHODS: Nine children (5-10 years, mean age 7.2 years, 5 boys, 4 girls) with disabilities participated in individual photo-elicitation interviews. The interview data was transcribed verbatim and analyzed with inductive content analysis. RESULTS: The children's meaningful participation mainly comprised free leisure activities that fostered enjoyment, capability, autonomy and social involvement with family and friends. The children's emotions and physical sensations, opportunities to influence, knowledge about the activity and the participation context, presumptions and previous experiences of the activity and the environment played a vital role in their decisions to participate. CONCLUSION: The meaningful participation facilitated enjoyment and self-determination for the children. Identifying personal and environmental factors supporting or restricting participation from the child's perspective emerges as important in order to provide opportunities for the child's meaningful participation in everyday life. The photo-elicitation interviews demonstrated the potential to act as a tool to identify and explore the children's views about participation in a real-life context.